1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to sleep masks, and more particularly to a sleep mask that has improved breathing.
2) Prior Art and Statement of the Problem
Sleeping is difficult for people who are easily awakened by light, as periodically light will be generated either from passing lights, for instance from a car, a train or a truck; and lights that illuminate when motion is detected. Light stimulates people's primeval instinct to awaken, as it is a normal reaction to awaken at first light. Inventions have artificially expanded the length of useable daylight, so that now people are awake during times they normally would be asleep, and people have a need to adjust their schedules so that they can continue to get to sleep, even in the presence of light. One approach has been to create window treatments that essentially block out all ambient light. Another approach is to use sleep masks. Sleep masks cover your eyes and block out most light, but generally not all light.
Another invention that can affect sleep is high speed travel, for instance in a jet airliner, where one can move from one time zone to another in a relatively short period of time. If the traveler is flying from East to West (i.e., NY to CA), the rate of travel is so fast that the day will be extended several hours, so that when the traveler arrives at his destination the traveler's body is saying it is eleven o'clock PM, but the current time at his destination is eight o'clock PM Pacific Standard time. For most travelers air flight from West to East is even more difficult. The time zone change from NY to Pairs is six hours. If your plane departs at six PM and you arrive in Paris five hours later, your body will think it is eleven o'clock, but actual Pairs time will be five o'clock AM. By the time the traveler gets in bed at midnight, it is sunrise in Paris. The exhausted traveler may only be able to get to sleep if he has a sleep mask to keep out the ambient light.
Sleep can also be disrupted when breathing is difficult, for instance by a deviated septum or in general by narrowed nasal passages. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,091 to Bruce C. Johnson some of the symptoms and causes are discussed. Humans are often subject to interior obstruction of their nasal passages which makes breathing more difficult. Examples of such obstruction are a deviated septum typically resulting from injury to the nose, swelling of interior nose tissues due to allergic reactions, and the nasal symptoms present in those suffering with the common cold. The morphology of the lower portion of a nostril, immediately interior the entrance to the nostril, is the vestibule. The vestibule tapers inwardly to a narrowed neck-like area called the nasal valve. Nasal passages, posterior to the nasal valve, widen again. Nasal obstructions commonly occur at the nasal valve to the point that the nasal valve may be substantially blocked. Commonly, the lateral wall (i.e., the outer wall tissues of the nasal passage) at the nasal valve is loose with the result that the outer wall tissues are draw-in during the inhalation portion of the breathing process, and this can substantially or completely block passage of air through the nasal passage. Blockage of the nasal passage is compensated by sustained mouth breathing, which over a long period of time may cause lung irritation due to the inhalation of foreign particles that would otherwise be filtered if the breath had passed through the nose. Nasal blockages lead to sleep disturbances, sleep irregularities, snoring or a combination thereof. Additionally, a person with such a condition may wake often, probably because that person is not easily inhaling sufficient quantities of oxygen.
Some solutions include medications (nasal sprays), surgery, and mechanical aids termed nasal dilators. Mechanical aids have been used in attempts to open nasal passages. Such dilators have been both of the internal variety which in effect push out the sides of the nasal passages to open them, and of the external variety effectively pulling on the sides of the nasal passages to open them. The internal types require insertion in the nasal passages, Johnson in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,091 discloses an external variety dilator formed with a base material resilient strip having an adhesive layer that is adhered to the exterior surface of the nose. A version of the strip is sold under the trade name of Breath Right Strip™.